Van Aert and Van der Poel battle like old times, but In Flanders Fields falls to Philipsen

Friday’s E3 Saxo Classic showed that even the so-called aliens can be beaten. Yes, Van der Poel crossed the line first, but the riders behind him put the Dutch superstar under pressure in a way we have rarely seen. In In Flanders Fields, with a route considered a little less demanding, the script looked likely to be very different.

Instead of 2,000 metres of climbing, the riders were faced with around 1,200 here. On the other hand, the race was still a long one at 240 kilometres, which meant the famous Kemmelberg was always going to hurt. It featured three times on the route and has so often been the decisive point in this race. That was the case last year too, when the now absent Mads Pedersen put on an impressive number.

Pedersen fell ill after E3 Saxo Classic, so a new winner was guaranteed. With Van der Poel on the start list, along with heavy hitters such as Wout van Aert, Filippo Ganna and Paul Magnier, there was certainly no shortage of contenders. The wind, though, also threatened to shape the race, especially through De Moeren, where chaos had been widely expected.

From the flag drop, Frits Biesterbos was the first rider to attack. The Dutchman from Picnic PostNL did not get away immediately and first saw four riders slip clear, but he later bridged across with another small group. That left Dries De Bondt, Julius Johansen, Camille Charret, Jules Hesters, Victor Vercouille and Unibet Rose Rockets duo Hartthijs de Vries and Wessel Mouris up front as well.

That meant three Dutch riders and three Belgians in the move, and they were soon given room by the peloton, where Alpecin-Premier Tech took control. The wind was blowing hard in De Moeren, as it so often does, but beyond the usual nerves it did not immediately split the race. That came later, when the men of Van der Poel and Philipsen forced echelons and ripped the bunch to pieces.

Van Aert was alert enough to make the move, but outsiders such as Filippo Ganna, Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay were left chasing. It was a frantic phase of racing and the speed was relentless. After a long pursuit, the second part of the peloton managed to come back, but by then the race had already entered the hill section.

Things remained fairly calm on the first climb up the Kemmelberg, but then the Plug Streets—the famous unpaved roads—appeared. There were several breakaway attempts: Jasper Stuyven (Soudal Quick-Step), Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Ben Turner (INEOS Grenadiers), and many others made their moves, but we headed into the second climb of the Kemmelberg with a fairly complete peloton.

There, it was Van Aert, who had been attentive the whole time, who accelerated. That was really fast: only Van der Poel and Florian Vermeersch could keep up. That trio caught up with the last leaders at the top, resulting in a group of eight riders pulling away from the peloton. Decathlon CMA CGM took the lead, but the gap was soon half a minute.

Johansen, Vermeersch’s teammate, rode himself to exhaustion for his team leader. As a result, the gap only grew larger. On the Baneberg, the penultimate climb of the day, Biesterbos, Mouris, De Vries, and De Bondt managed to hang on with the big names. They had one more climb to catch up with Van der Poel, Van Aert, and Vermeersch, but that was the Kemmelberg one last time.

There, Van der Poel surged ahead, and the front-runners were immediately dropped. Vermeersch couldn’t keep up with the pace either, and Van Aert had to lean all the way over the handlebars to keep up with his rival. He fell two meters behind, but with a final burst of energy, he stayed with him. Vermeersch had to make up about 10 seconds at the top, but he wasn’t quite beaten yet.

On his own, however, he had to take on two giants, who found each other on the flat sections. There was no sign of them looking at each other yet. The peloton, however, wasn’t too far behind, and there Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, NSN Cycling, and Lotto-Intermarché joined forces. So anything could still happen, especially since Vermeersch wasn’t giving up much ground.

For a moment, it looked like he was making a comeback, but then, slowly but surely, the fighting Belgian began to fade. The peloton swallowed him up, but they also quickly closed in on the two leaders. With 10 kilometers to go, the gap was down to just 20 seconds. They couldn’t afford to sit back for a moment, but things were starting to look particularly bleak for the two rivals.

With 5 kilometers to go, it was 10 seconds, but then suddenly Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) emerged from the peloton. The young Belgian rode solo toward the two leaders. Suddenly, a major force had joined the fray. What was still possible? The gap stagnated a bit in the final kilometers.

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was working hard, but the German team got help from a powerhouse Filippo Ganna. He closed the gap single-handedly, but Segaert made a desperate attempt to break away. He, too, was caught, after which Tobias Lund Andresen initiated the sprint, but Jasper Philipsen was by far the strongest. Andresen finished second, ahead of Christophe Laporte.